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Left-Hander Lee Masterful in Shutting Down YankeesBy Tim Sullivan NEW YORK — The ball left Robinson Cano's bat on a path that closely paralleled its trip to home plate. This caught Cliff Lee slightly out of position on the pitcher's mound, but not nearly out of tricks. Philadelphia's resourceful left-hander obtained the first out of the eighth inning last night with a reflexive reach, a blind stab and a stunning snag of Cano's one-hop smash. Both literally and figuratively, then, Lee won the World Series opener with one hand behind his back. "I don't know how I caught that ball," Lee confessed after his complete-game, 10-strikeout, 6-1 smackdown of the New York Yankees. If it was really a fluke, and not some parlor trick Lee has perfected back home in Arkansas, it was one of the few points in the proceedings in which the Phillies pitcher was not totally, utterly, completely in control. The Yankees had four hits through eight innings, but advanced none of those runners so much as one base. They had two more hits and scored a run in the ninth inning, but it was unearned. Lee's pitching was every bit as dominant as was Josh Beckett's 2003 shutout in the last World Series game played in the Bronx, and it was better than Lee's own party-crashing performance in the first game played in the new Yankee Stadium in April. He made it look easy and, with the exception of his eighth-inning sleight-of-hand, almost effortless. He reinforced the growing perception that he is destined to be this year's Cole Hamels, the pitcher who owns October. "When we got him, I knew he was good," Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said of the pitcher he picked up at the midseason trading deadline. "I had seen him before. But if you want to know the truth, I didn't know that he was as good as he's been." Though Lee earned the American League's Cy Young Award last season by winning 22 of 25 decisions for the Cleveland Indians, his work this month has been otherworldly. He is 3-0 in four postseason starts with an ERA of 0.54 and an opponent's batting average of .171. His game-ending strikeout of Jorge Posada made him the 51st pitcher to reach double digits in strikeouts in a World Series game, but the first in 60 years to do so without issuing a walk. "The guy's been pitching great, and he didn't make any mistakes," said Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon, who had two bats broken by Lee's late movement last night. Lee struck out seven hitters over the first four innings — all of them on swinging third strikes — and he fanned Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez three times in four at-bats. "This whole lineup, you've got to be unpredictable," Lee said. "You've got to show them stuff they haven't seen before and just kind of be unpredictable, mix speeds, mix locations and don't get in patterns. That offense is pretty potent, and if they get a clue on what you're trying to do and you actually do it, they're going to make you pay." That was analysis speaking, not anxiety. Lee was so perfectly poised and so uncannily relaxed last night that when Damon popped up with one out in the sixth, the pitcher caught the ball basket-style, with a level of nonchalance that bordered on indifference. "To be successful at this level, you've got to be confident," he said. "You've got to go out there and think you can. I definitely do that. I try not to go over the edge and rub things in and be cocky, but I definitely have confidence, there's no doubt about it." Chase Utley's third-inning homer — the first of two he would hit against Yankee ace CC Sabathia — provided Lee the only cushion he would require. A late-inning meltdown by the Yankees' bullpen turned the pitchers' duel between erstwhile Indians into a blowout. "The bottom line is we've got to swing the bats better than we did," said Yankees captain Derek Jeter. "Cliff went out there, he had a game plan and stuck with it, (and) he was tough on us. ._._. CC did exactly what we needed him to do. We just didn't score him any runs." As a consequence, the Yankees must solve longtime nemesis Pedro Martinez tonight or face the prospect of a 2-0 deficit when the series resumes Saturday in Philadelphia. "As far as being frustrated, our guys will grind it out," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "I'm not concerned about that." Girardi's consolation, such as it is, is that Lee "can't pitch every day." Tim Sullivan writes about sports for The San Diego Union-Tribune. COPYRIGHT 2009 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
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